some circumstances in Worship which they like not 4. When you come home from the Publick be careful to spend your time in Religious Exercises Meditate on what you have heard and having like a diligent Bee gathered abroad in the Publick Assembly the sweet of heavenly Flowers work your Honey-comb within your own Hive Digest well by private Meditation that spiritual meat which was set before you in the Dishes of the Publick Ordinances Meditate also on the Attributes of God the Works of God and especially the Mercies of God that you may be stirred up to holy rejoycings praises and thanksgivings which are the most proper work of the day which is a day of thanksgiving and commemoration of the Mercies of God especially of the Resurrection of Christ and the great work of Redemption 5. Be careful that your Servants do not prophane or mis-spend this day as being tender of their Souls as well as your own Solomon's virtuous Woman gave a portion of holy Instructions as well as of Food to her Servants and Maidens Prov 31.15 26. CHAP. XXIV Of Holy Duties in general 1. BEfore you go to any Duty address your self to Jesus Christ for a supply of grace for the performance thereof If you be to go to a new act of praying or hearing or receiving the Sacraments you must eye Jesus Christ again put forth a new act of Faith towards him and labour for new Influences and a fresh supply of Spirit from him 2. Do not only number your Duties but weigh your Duties how many how many look only how oft they go to Duties but never seriously how or in what manner they perform them and so cheat themselves everlastingly concluding themselves to be in a state of Grace because of their constancy in Duties but miscarry everlastingly for want of a right manner of performing them as out of a right spring and principle and to a right end and with sincerity and fervency of affection Though the Tree bear many large and fair fruits yet it is not much valued unless they have a good rellish If the fruits that your Soul brings forth have not a good tast through the sincerity and right ends thereof or tast not of the Love of God they will not be acceptable unto God Let all your works be done in Love 1 Cor. 16.14 3. Do not only perform holy duties but love holy duties so they will be more acceptable to the God of Love An ungodly Man or Woman may often go to prayer but they love it not they may hear the Word but they receive not the Truth in the love of it But a good heart loves duties So long as you cannot find any rellish in Ordinances or private Duties but are in an indifferency whether you perform them or no or have your frequent intermissions of these meals so that sometimes you take them and sometimes you let them alone it is a sign you are not sound within or if you do constantly take them if it be without an appetite and perform holy duties only to stop the mouth of Conscience it s an argument your Soul is not in health Till you find sweetness in Ordinances the case is not well with you as it should be the Soul is out of frame If once you love duties they will be a delight and refreshment to you All the ways of Christ are Beds of Spices and Roses and can you walk on such and not be requited for it with sweet and fragrant smells Those that carry bundles of Spices from Arabia have their Spirits refresht with the sweet Odours that breathe from them A good Christian is refresht in duty the Soul can sing at her work Love turns all pains into pleasures Though the Mother take a great deal of pains in tending the Child yet she finds a sweet delight in it because of her love to it A good Christian can say with David O how I love thy Law Psal 119.97 And I delight to do thy Will O my God! Psal 40.8 CHAP. XXV Of Prayer 1. DO not rush on Prayer presently without some serious consideration before Read therefore some portion of Scripture before you pray This will afford you matter of meditation which will furnish you with matter for Prayer for so you may turn what you have read into Prayer A good Heart is by one Duty quickned and prepared for another as the Wild Bores by whetting their Tusks with their other Teeth make them sharp and so every Tooth mutually sets an edge on another If therefore you be to read Pray before by some short Address to God if to Pray read before Yea Pray also before Prayer that God would Assist you in Prayer and deliver you from the Evil Infirmities of your Prayer Holy David Prays for his own Prayers Psal 141.1 2. 2. Look not upon Prayer as a task but as a priviledge O! what a great and glorious priviledge is it that the poorest Saint may with boldness have access to God! Eph. 3.18 Rom. 5.1 2. Is it not a Royal Priviledge to have a Key in our keeping that opens Heaven Gates and lets into the Presence Chamber of the King of Glory To speak with him at any time If you would thus look upon it I should not need to perswade you to go to Prayer constantly Morning and Evening This would be in stead of a hundred Arguments that Prayer is so High and so Royal a Priviledge that you may thereby go boldly to the Throne of Grace draw near to God himself and lay your Petition in his Bosom and plead your Cause before him and fill your Mouth with Arguments and Reason out your great Concernments with him and receive his Answers 3. Pray Earnestly Lazy Devotion and Key-cold Prayers will never prevail You must wrestle with God in Prayer like Holy Jacob that you may prevail In wrestling one single Person strives with another so the Devout Soul with God they go to it singly as it were Hand to Hand and have as it were a single Combat in private The Devout Saint loves to wrestle with God in the Closet when no Body is present the Door being shut he loves not to have Spectators of it he then comes up close to God and gets within him takes hold of his Everlasting Arms. Thus the Woman of Canaan Wrestled with Christ she stands to it though she had many Repulses from him The Soul thus Wrestles with God as a Child with the Father who is much delighted and pleased to let it get the better on him to encourage it and after takes it up from its Knees into his Arms when you go to Prayer you must set all your faculties on work you must open and spread the Sails open and spread forth your Affections as wide as you can that they may gather wind enough to waft you over to the Land of Promise 4. See that your Prayers be followed with Diligent and Serious Endeavours for effecting of that which you have Prayed for
highest degree the very Cream Flower and Top of your Affection I do not mean in respect of the passionateness of it for your love to Creatures may be more passionate but in respect of the high estimation of him adhering to him and readiness to forego all for him you must value the Interest of God in Christ above your own nothing must have more of your heart Christ must be above self and above every thing else in the heart nothing else must be suffered to creep into the Bed of Love 3. If there be any thing else that lies nearer the heart than Christ the Fountain of your spiritual life it will hinder your Union with him and living in him The least Chip that falls betwixt the graft and the joynt hinders its knitting to the stock and maketh the graft to die Let nothing then lie in the joynt betwixt Christ and your Heart to prevent and hinder your happy and blessed Union and keep you from closing with him embracing of him and living in him 4. There may be in an Unregenerate Person a true love to God and Christ I mean such a true love as is not dissembling love but yet it fails in the degree there 's other love to self that pirks above it and over-tops it and so damps this affection that it never flames out to God and Christ 4. Now that you may get this superlative love to God and Christ wrought in you you must take pains with your own heart otherwise you will not bring it up to this high pitch Strike the flint hard to bring out Fire and pray to Christ to take his Bellows and his Fan to blow up the small sparks in the dead ashes that they may grow into a flame of Love 5. Take also a prospect of those Treasures of Transcendent goodness those heaps of Infinite Perfections that are stored up in God the immense Ocean of love and sweetness that fills every creek of Being and look not upon a naked Christ but as Invested with Personal Excellencies beyond compare and so you will see how infinitely amiable he is in himself 6. But further take a sweet view of the love of God in Christ offering Pardon and Salvation to you with others upon condition of believing that so you may find your heart move reciprocally in love to God and Christ and when once you find this in the heart then you may conclude his speciall Love to you which will further increase your love to him I do not say that your first Love to God must be kindled by the flames of his special Love to you no it is the prospect of his goodness in himself and of his common love and mercy to Sinners in tendring a Saviour and not of his special saving Love to you as actually enjoyed by you that is the Incentive of your first love to him for though you be bound to love God with a special Love yet you are not bound to love him as one that specially loveth you untill you be indeed so beloved by him otherwise you were bound to believe a falsity and to love God for that which is not But if you once find the special saving Love of God shining in your heart working hâ—i Grace in you this will fire up your love to him then you will be ready to say to your self what shall there be a Noon-day Sun-shine of Love and Grace upon me a poor clod of Earth and no reflexion of a Sun-beam shall there be hot flamings forth from his Breast towards me a worthless Worm and not a spark in mine towards him shall I not be most ingrateful if I do not offer up to him a flaming Sacrifice CHAP. VI. Of Vniversal Obedience 1. LIve in Universal Obedience to the Laws of God This will follow upon that Love to God now Commended to you as being the Daughter of it Hence that speech of our Saviour If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14.15 Imitate that good Woman before mentioned whose Name you bear of whom it is said that she walk'd in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Luk. 1.6 It 's required of poor weak Women that they diligently follow every good Work 1 Tim. 5.10 The sound and healthy Christian refuseth no kind of Work that God enjoyns be it never so hard and difficult whereas the unsound crazy Hypocrisie like a Man that hath some sore Disease about him will only set upon some easie Work some slight duties of Religion but as for the more hard and difficult ones as Wrestling with the Old Man running the Christian Race Mortification Self-denial and strict Holiness he passeth them over here he makes a baulk in his Obedience like a Husbandman that pulls aside his Plough when he comes to a hard or stiff piece of Ground How many are there that will comply with those duties that are suitable to their own mind and their own ends who in others are very backward and take their liberty These are crooked Sticks that will not touch with Gods measure they will pick and chuse it may be they will not be Wanton but yet they will be Proud they will not be unjust dealers but yet they will be hard-hearted towards the Poor it may be they will be Zealous in Worship but yet Censorious and Uncharitable Such give to God Bankrupt payment a Noble in the Pound part of his due 2. Those that are thus scant and partial in their Obedience are guilty of the breach of the whole Law For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and offend in one Point is guilty of all Jam 2 10. Because there is the same Authority in every Command in one as well as another One Condition not observed forfeiteth the whole Lease O that this Principle may be Engraven in your Heart that unless you be throughout Religious your Religion is Vain 3. In your Obedience therefore take in the whole Compass and Latitude of Religion both First and Second Table and as Holy David Have respect to all God's Commandments Psal 119.6 A gracious Heart answers the Law of God as a Copy doth the Original line for line syllable for syllable letter for letter and would not willingly receive or admit any Errata's it 's universally conformable to every Word of God If you have a Gracious Spirit you will not make any exception you will not defalcate or cut off any known Duty you will not designedly clip off any part of God s Coin any piece of that Service which hath Gods Stamp and Superscription on it CHAP. VII Of Circumspect Walking 1. SEE that you walk circumspectly Eph. 5.15 It 's not enough to walk in a good way in an Universal course of duties as to the matter of them but you must do it accurately and exactly in a right manner It 's necessary that there be an Accurateness and Circumspection observed in your Walking in the way to Heaven Mind then your way very well make it your work
Cannon-shot that damps the fiercest anger CHAP. XIV Of Living in Love and Charity to all 1. LIve in Love and Charity to your Neighbour Be careful to get this grace engraven on your breast and as it were moulded into your very Nature Live in this Element of Love let the acting thereof be so natural and familiar to you that he that runs may read this New Commandment which Christ left of loving one another written in you as it were in Letters of Gold Oh how main a part of Religion and Holiness lies in this duty of Love I do not know through all the New Testament any one duty so much inculcated and prest on as this of Love no string so much beat upon as if it made the best Musick and sweetest Harmony in Christian Religion 2. You must love all even the most wicked in the World as having the natural Image of God or the marks of his Perfection in the Rational Soul David indeed profest his hatred of God's Enemies but it was according to the ordinary gloss of their sins not of their persons That effect of Lightning in breaking the Sword and not bruising the Scabbard is accounted as one of Natures great Mysteries But this heavenly flame of Love and Charity seems much more mysterious and admirable in its operations whilst it would by all means keep safe and preserve the person of our vicious Neighbour and Enemy when it hath a deadly hatred unto and a desire to destroy his Vices 3. Though you love all yet your best and choicest Love must be to the Saints in whom the Moral Image of God which consists in righteousness and true hollness and is the special Loadstone of Love doth shine and sparkle forth In the parallel Lines which are drawn from the Circumference to the Center they all draw to it and the nearer the Center the nearer they are to one another God is the Center of Love and the nearer we come to him the nearer are we to one another in spiritual Affection There 's a Consanguinity of Graces among the Saints and therefore the greatest Love as there is among persons of the same blood and kindred They are all the Children of God by Faith 4. Let this Love put you upon being ready to do all the good you can as you have opportunity but especially to those that are of the houshold of Faith Let the Errand on which Jesse sent David be your great business in the World Look how thy Brethren fare Consider the Poor so as to relieve them Deny your self Superfluities that you may supply the Poor with Necessaries The Poor are God's Wardrobe you cannot hang up your Riament in a better place CHAP. XV. How to manage your Converse in Company 1. LET that grace of Love and Charity commended to you in the former Chapter steer and influence you in your Civil Converse in all Companies Let it be as a bridle to your tongue to restrain your speaking evil of others and to curb all censuring Take him saith holy Mr. Baxter that speaks evil of another to you to be Satan's Messenger intreating you to hate your Brother or to abate your Love Let me then warn and caution you not to run upon Satans Errand or to do his Message And consider that this speaking evil of others is the great Make-bate the grand Incendiary that raiseth up flames kindles hatred and malice and damps all Love and Affection It 's the Sluce of dissention and discord the great Inlet of jarrs and animosities of quarrels and contentions in all Companies And as for censuring of others how familiar is it with those of your Sex when they come together to run division in the Censures of other persons either for their entertainments their garb and dressing their outward behaviour and gestures or some such trifles alway finding fault and often making as Coneys do holes in the Rocks where they cannot find therefore do you mind your self only look within your self within your own heart in this respect keep at home like a good Huswife be much within doors within your own bosom to spy what fault there is and go not abroad in uncharitable Censures of others In the Twilight we can see to read without doors when we cannot within We cannot see the swellings in our own hearts when we can easily spy small Pimples in another we can see the Moâ—e in anothers Eye when we cannot the Beam in our own 2. Be watchful when you are in Company that you contract no harm thereby The Bee in the midst of the Hive full of clinging stuff yet keeps her wings untoucht with it Indeed vain Company hath usually a very strong force to make us imitate their gestures words and actions we usually learn our Pronunciation our Shibâ—â—â—â—th and our Gestures and Gate by our Company You can scarce come any where but there is some white Wall or some black Hood so that you shall carry something away with you But the greatest danger is from carnal Friends and Relations these indeed are the great Impediments in the way to Heaven Many in all probability had been holy and gracious persons if they had had better Kindred and lived where Godliness had been encouraged and good Examples given thereunto O it is a very sad thing to be near to them whose nearness will remove you further from God! Be therefore exceeding careful to keep your spiritual Watch in your Company and labour so to live in the World as not to partake of the corrupt and sinful humours of it As Mother Pearls live in the Sea not taking in one drop of Salt Water into their Shells 3. But yet as much as possible may be avoid joyning your self with any Acquaintance except such by whom you may be made better The Royal Psalmist begins his first Psalm with the blessedness of that person who hath not walkt in the company of the ungodly Diamonds will not cement with Rubbish 4. In all Converse in any Company let some good words fall from you that may tend to make them better Let your Lips like the Spouses in the Canticles drop as the Honey-comb distil some sweetness some savoury and wholsom words A word spoken in season may thro' God's blessing tend to the eternal welfare of a Soul A good Woman riding with her Husband in a great Thunder which much affrighted him and being askt by him what the reason was why she was not at all afraid returned this sweet and holy Answer Because it is my Fathers Voice And this one seasonable word proved the occasion of his Conversion to God 5. Be sure to avoid all vain discourse and idle chatt which is the feminine malady and let your words be few and well considered before you speak Remember that astonishing speech Mat. 12.36 That of every idle word that you shall speak you shall give an account thereof at the day of Judgment CHAP. XVI How to manage Solitariness 1. VVHen you are solitary and alone
upon the height of his Stature like Saul among the People there is none like him View him in all his excellencies he is white and ruddy the Chiefest among ten thousand fairer than all the Children of Men and your self will be complete in him Know for your encouragement that you shall have the richest Dowry in all the World for all that Christ and Heaven is worth shall be yours the Wife being interested in all her Husbands Goods he will advance you to a Kingdom and Feoffe you in all the riches of it Say then Lord if I had Ten Thousand selves I would give them all up to thee who hast shewed to me such wonderful Love as to offer to give up thy self to me I will take thee with all my heart I give my free and hearty consent let the Match be made and assure your self then that it shall be made up the Spirit of Christ will be assistant to Faith in Tying the Marriage knot CHAP. II. Of Living the Life of Faith 1. LIve the Life of Faith in a continual dependence upon God in Christ for all things necessary especially for the Soul Six hundred and Thirteen precepts have been observed to be in the Law of Moses by some of the Hebrew Doctors who had the leisure to number them and they tell us that they are all wrapt up by the Prophet Habakkuk in that one short sentence The just shall live by Faith Sure it is a very pregnant and comprehensive duty for Faith is an Obediential Affiance and so is a pair of Compasses one foot whereof viz. Affiance being pitch'd upon the Center which is God the other goes round in a perfect Circle of all holy Duties Faith surveys the whole Land of promise searches it out throughly spies out all the rich Treasures that lye in the golden mines of the promises and finds suitable provision in every case both for Soul and for Body which in it can fetch in time of need and so it hath work enough daily for a constant and continued employment because every moment we are under some spiritual want 2. As for temporal good things live by Faith in a holy dependency and indifferency resting contented with the will of God whatsoever it be A believer though the Bill of fare be short lives on the wise powerful and gracious providence of God not doubting but he shall have enough to pay for his passage thorugh the Sea of this World to Heaven How many live on the Trencher of Gods Providence in their maintenance who never live on that providence in a gracious dependance or by actings of Faith in a promise Do not most Persons live wholly by their Friends by their Credit and Interest in the World but where is the Man or Woman that Lives by Faith 3 Fetch in provision for your Soul daily by actings of Faith Let Faith make out to Christ for new supplies of spiritual strength grace and comfort in all your need Faith is our Purveyor till we come to the Mount of God and goes a Catering for us till we come to that Land that flows with Milk and Hony God is a rich Mine of Wisdom and Grace which can never be digged to the bottom and hath inexhaustible Treasures lock'd up in Christ continually lying ready by him only stays for Faith to come and fetch them He is not pleased to give us in a full supply of all at once but crumbles out his mercies and gives his blessings by retail to teach us by Faith to live upon him daily Manna fell every morning God could if he had pleased have given them as much at once as should have served them all the time that they were to be in the Wilderness but he would teach them by his daily gift to depend upon his Providence for it daily Thus God is pleased to deliver out to his dear Children every day a set allowance it may be but a Crum of hidden Manna a tast of his special Love when he could fill an Omer of it if he pleased it may be he reaches forth to a believer only some Grapes of the Heavenly Canaan when he could throw clusters thereof into his Lap. He could have so form'd the new-born Babe in Christ and have cast it into such a Mould in the New-birth as that it should have been perfect in that instant as Adam was in the moment of Creation but he will have this Babe of grace to go by degrees from Faith to Faith from Strength to Strength till it come to full perfection The king appointed a daily Provision of his meat and of the Wine which he drank to certain of the Children of Israel Dan. 1.5 Thus doth the King of Heaven he will not give all grace at once out of his Store-house nor let the Pot of hidden Manna be in our keeping he doth not think fit we should have his Royal Wine of spiritual Joy and Comfort in our own Cellars to go to when we please lest we should drink and forget our selves yea and him too lest it should fume up and make our Heads giddy or our Blood too rank our Spirits too high proud for it is no easie matter to carry the brim-full Cup of Consolation steddily and equally though the Soul have rich joy to day yet it may have none to morrow unless he please to send a draught of this Cordial Wine from his own Table And why is all this but to teach us to live by Faith and wait continually upon him for new Influences The wise Father keeps the stock in his own hands and gives not all at once to keep his Son in a dependence CHAP. III. Of the Life of Holiness LIve the Life of Holiness This directly follows the Life of Faith for all holiness springs from Faith and the more you live the Life of Faith the more you will live the Life of holiness Now if you would live this Holy Life you must do these five things 1. Get a principle of holiness you cannot live a Life of holiness unless there be first a principle of holiness within Can the Body stir or move without a principle of Life how can there be actual holiness in the Life where there is not first habitual holiness in the Heart 2. Make holiness the very work of your Life or devote your self to the work of holiness he lives a Students life or the life of a Scholar who devotes himself to his Studies You do then live a Holy Life when you make holiness the very business of your Life when the Course and Tenor and main Imployment of your Life is Holiness when you make a Trade of it Do you only perform Holy Duties by fits and starts do you make stops and pauses are you off and on and act holily only occasionally or in some certain good moods or on some Holy days this is not to live a Life of Holiness You must constantly imploy your self therein and follow after it in the
whole course of your Life And therefore let me now bespeak you in the words of a Holy Man now with the Lord. Let Holiness sit in your Lips and season all your Speech with Grace let it dwell in your Heart let it be your companion in your Closet let it Travel with you in your Journey let it lye down and rise up with you let it close your Eyes in the Evening and call you out of your Bed in the Morning 3. Make holiness the main design and end of your Life Then indeed you live the Life of Holiness when holiness which is the main design of Christianity is the great design of your Life when the very drift purport and intent of your Life is to live to God 4. Spend all the time of your Life that you can redeem from other occasions in the duties of holiness while others steal time from holy duties for their Worldly business and pleasures do you borrow all the time that you can from those things yea from your sleep for holy duties 5. Put forth your Vital Power your Life your Vigor and Strength in Exercises of Holiness Summon in all the powers of your soul let none be wanting Whatsoever your Heart findeth to do in the Work of Religion do it with all your might ply your Oars hoise up your Sails put forward with all your power and strength with might and main in your course toward Heaven By thus doing you will certainly live the Life of Holiness It may be you may meet with some scoffs amongst some Ishmaels for such a Holy Life bat yet let not this discourage or take you off from following the ways of holiness and uprightness What if a Lame Man should laugh at your upright walking would you therefore go lamely But for your better encouragement I shall propound to you one Motive Consider that unless you live the Life of holiness you can never live the Life of glory Vnless you be Regenerated and Born again you can never enter into the Kingdom of God John 3.3 It 's only the New Creature that must be admitted into the New Jerusalem You will never be a Flower in the Paradise of Heaven unless you first be Transplanted out of the common field of Nature into Christ's holy Garden Without Holiness no one shall ever see the Lord. Heb. 12.14 It 's this that fits the very Angels for Heaven and therefore without it how can you ever think to come there It 's not the Angelical Nature but their Holiness that makes them fit for Heaven and therefore it 's more excellent than the very Nature of the Angels considered in it self for it is the Image of God as a bright beam of the Divine Nature and so makes us capable of Heaven My Heart therefore yearns for you my Bowels rowl within me out of tender affection to your Soul lest you should come short of Holiness and thereby come short of Heaven Moral Virtues without Holiness will never be a Jacobs Ladder to reach Heaven how near soever they may come to it O what pity is it that an Ingenuous Nature should by some Moral accomplishments come near to Heaven and yet never come there that Rachel should dye when it was but a little way to come to Ephrath Be sure therefore to add the practice and power of Godliness as a full figure to your Cyphers For unless you do this I shall never have hope to see your Face in Heaven which is an undefiled Inheritance CHAP. IV. Of Living as in Gods Presence 1. LIve always as in the presence of God and as under his jealousie Thus did good Elizabeth in the Gospel of whom it is said That she was Righteous before God or in the Eyes of the Lord as the Vulgar Latin reads it Luke 1.6 It was good counsel of one of the Rabbins that we should always think that there was an Eye that saw all an Ear hearing all and an Hand writing all Often repeat the 1â—9 Psalm to your self and seriously consider that God is in all places and not only in the place where you are but within you in your very Breast and Bosom viewing all your thoughts and intentions not with a bare beholding but with a critical Eye and as a Judge to censure them to approve or Condemn them Whereupon his eye-lids are said to try the Children of Men Psal 11.4 You cannot shut the Heart so close but he hath a Key to unlock it he draws the Curtain and sees what is within he spies out what is Cabinetted and lock'd up in the most secret Corner and private Drawer there The bright and piercing Eye of Omniscience sees the very inward Conceptions before they come to the Birth the first eruptions and ebullitions of a Thought or Intention 2. If you do all things as believing that this Eye is upon you it will have a great influence on your Life What a holy trembling and quivering disposition would this create in you lest you should offend so Glorious an Eye What a Curb and Bridle would it be to restrain from all Sin even from secret Hypocrisie What a sharp Goad and Spur to all Uprightness The Masters Eye makes the Servant work Do but serve God faithfully while he sees you and it is enough I have read of one that committing a foul Sin said to himself No Eye sees me but presently there appear'd an Eye on the Wall with this Inscription But this Eye sees thee If you did always keep within you fresh apprehensions of God as present you would not admit a dishonourable thought of him in your Heart nor let an evil word have passage through the door of your Lips 3. Know for your encouragement that if you thus live as in Gods awful Presence you shall enjoy very much his gracious Presence here and his Glorious Presence hereafter to all Eternity CHAP. V. Of Living in Love to God and Christ 1. LIve in love to God and Jesus Christ do all things out of a principle of Love to God your Father and Jesus Christ the only Saviour God must be loved as your ultimate end the enjoyment of whom is the Souls everlasting blessedness and Christ as Mediator must be loved as the only way whereby we are reconciled to God and come to obtain that blessedness If you live not in the love of God how can you ever expect to live in his favour or that he will either accept you or your Services for it is this Love that perfumes all our actions and makes them a sweet Odour unto God Love to God is the very Life and Soul of all Natural Religion and Love to Christ is the Spirit and Vital principle that animates all Evangelical Duties which are required by the New Covenant and therefore no duty will be acceptible without it 2. Look well to it that your love to God and Christ be a singular superlative transcendent Love a Love that out-ballanceth all other Love whatsoever It must be the
take heed of the creeping in of vain thoughts which are then most apt to swarm Oh it is incredible to think what a multitude of vain thoughts run through the vain mind in an hour perhaps as many as there be Sands in an Hour-glass O what pity is it that this noble Soul should be so idle either doing nothing or to so little purpose It 's an evil heart that like Jett draws to it self nothing but Straws O how much is it to be lamented that this golden Mill of the Soul should spend it self in grinding Chaff for its Enemy the great destroyer of Mankind O wash thy heart from wickedness how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Jer. 4.14 2. Entertain some short discourses with God or with your self when you are alone You never need complain of Melancholy and Solitariness in want of Company when you may make your self company enough for you may then hold discourse with God and your own Soul A Child of God is never less alone than when most alone because he hath God usually with him who is the best company That good Heathen Philosopher Epictetus could solace himself in his Solitariness in Banishment with these thoughts that Divine Colloquies and Conferences were to be had every where with God O learn to converse with God in your most solitary Retirements Say to God I will set thee always before me Psal 16.8 Or you may profitably use some discourses with your self some Divine Soliloquies you may call your Soul aside to her withdrawing Room you may commune with your own heart in your Chamber as the Psalmist expresseth it Psal 4.4 But not as the Fool in the Gospel did singing a secure lullaby to his Soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years eat drink and be merry Luk. 12.19 But after the example of the devout Psalmist singing a holy rest to his Soul Return unto thy Rest O my Soul for God hath dealt bountifully with thee Psal 116.7 Or if you have a troubled spirit then you may talk to your self in a way of challenge or chiding expostulation Why art thou cast down O my Soul and why art thou disquieted within me As he did Psal 42.5 11. where he rallies up his Soul in that awakening Enquiry And if after you see reason to alter your Note and to give thanks for the scattering of that sad Cloud by the Sun-shine of Pardoning Mercy and Love then you may set your Affections in the same Key in which the same holy Man's were in another Soliloquy saying with him Bless the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name who forgiveth all thine iniquities and healeth all thy diseases Psal 103.1 2 3. 3. This course will much improve you in Piety and Holiness and this Retirement will help you to the most excellent Company to the Fellowship of God and Christ who will dwell in you and the innumerable company of Angels and just men made perfect will be of the same Society with you She that is not permitted to speak in the Church may thus preach to her self in her own private Chapel to her great benefit I mean that Sacred Chapel which her Devotion hath built in her own heart CHAP. XVII How to live in a Prosperous Condition 1. LIve above withering Vanities above all the smiles and blandishments of the World let not your heart be glued to any creature comforts look on them all as withered flowers as dead things let your heart be crucified to the World and the World to it looking upon it as a dead carcass that hath no beauty or loveliness in it If you profess your self a Christian live at a higher rate than others How unbecoming is it a Child of God to be puzling her self about the World A sense of the Love of God would lift up your Soul above the sweetest flowers and delights upon Earth in all which there will be found nothing but Wormwood and Gall in the latter end nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit It 's only the Rose of Sharon that is without prickles 2. Proportion your duties according to your mercies the greater Receivings or Incomes you have from God the greater must your Disbursments and Layings out for him be Your Accounts must be according to the number and weight of your Talents Matth. 25. The Servant should proportion his work according to his wages The Tree brings forth fruit proportionable to the juyce and nourishment that the root sucks from the Earth and to the cost that is bestowed upon it In the Ceremonial Law God required more costly Sacrifices from the Rich than from the Poor A pair of Turtle Doves or two young Pigeons would have been accepted from the Poor but not from the Rich. God was displeased with Hezekiah because he rendred not according to the benefits received 2 Chron. 23.25 3. Improve all your prosperity and lawful pleasures to the furthering of your delight in God If that a prosperous condition should afford you all the variety of Objects which might be most delectable to the several senses use them only as Stirrops or as the advantage of a higher ground to raise up your self by to the thoughts of Heaven and the delights thereof Let your Soul take occasion and advantage thence to carry it self up to the delightful thoughts of God the giver of all these as the Bird from the Tree takes the further flight And so far as you can make use of all your delight in creature comforts to promote your delight in the Lord and to drive away those black Clouds of carnal fears and sadnesses of spirits which are Enemies to your spiritual joy and delight Thus you will prove your self a good Chymical Christiâ—â— extracting a spiritual Quintessence out of these earthly and drossy things thus you turn Dung and Dross into Gold and Pearls mean and contemptible matters into high and glorious things and gain to your self such an Elixir as will refresh the Soul and fill it with Cordial Spirits When you perceive and tast the sweetness and pleasantness of these outward mercies think seriously if these be so sweet and delightsom how much more sweet is God himself who put all that sweetness and pleasantness therein 4. As you love your Soul let not your life be a life of pleasure and vanity If the Devil can but take you up with one pleasure one day and another vanity another till the Hour-glass of your time be run out he hath his end and you are ruin'd for ever Remember Dives his life was a continual feast of pleasure Luk. 16.19 but death soon brought the Voider and the Devil took away O do not ride to Hell upon the back of pleasure Can any think to dance with the Devil all day and to sup with Christ at night Quies which signifies Rest wants the plural number Flatter not your self with dreams of having a Rest in carnal pleasures here and everlasting Rest
meekness The Apostle Peter having said Ye were as Sheep going astray but are now returned unto the Shepherd of your Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 He immediately adds in the next words Ye Wives be in subjection to your own Husbands Wives are Christs Sheep and must not be the Devils Shrews 4. Is God calling you to be a Mother having formed a work in you unseen to any other Eye but his take great care that you give up and seriously devote and dedicate the fruit of your womb to God to be his Servants so that all the Children that God shall give you may be as Bathsheba called Solomon Children of your Vows And in the educating of them see that you be continually instilling and dropping into them the Milk of wholsom Instructions that so it may be said of you as of Solomon's virtuous Woman her Children rise up and call her blessed Prov. 31.28 How careful have holy Women been in these cases While Monica the Mother of Saint Austin was with Child with him she did often devote him to the Christian Religion and the Service of the great God and afterwards in his Education she so affectionately tendred the good of his Soul that he was called the Child of her Prayers and Tears It was Timothy's happiness that he had a good Mother and a good Grand-mother for so he learned the Scriptures from a Child And the Mother of holy Bernard as soon as her Children were born gave them up to the Lord Jesus to be his Servants And no less careful was she of of their Instructions as soon as they came to be capable thereof and the success was happy in that all of them became holy Children of God Children while young are most with the Mother and in her company and usually have the most love to her and therefore are the most likely to take her Instructions therefore be you careful to improve that advantage And begin betimes with them so soon as you see the first buddings of reason Gardiners begin to graft at the first rising of the Sap in the Spring and when the Bud of the Stock first begins to swell and enlarge The Wax while it is soft and tender will easily take Impression Labour by all means to imprint upon the Children that God shall give you a stamp of Holiness Philip King of Macedon gave to one a piece of Metal without any stamp who after returned it again to the King with his Son Alexander's Picture engraven on it which very much pleased the King You will receive your Children from God unpolisht without any form see that you return them back to him with his Son Christs Image on them which is the Image of Holiness 5. How sadly accented an account have those Mothers to give to God who neglect giving of good Instructions to their Children betimes What a terrible speech was that of a dying Lady to her ungodly Mother It 's too late now to speak of God to me I am going to Hell before and you will certainly follow after CHAP. XX. How to manage all Natural and Civil actions religiously 1. MAnage all your Natural and Civil actions by the Rules of Religion making the very drift and scope of them all to be the pleasing and glorifying of God Let the Needle in the Compass of your Soul stand directly and steddily to this Pole God's Glory and then you will steer your course aright Mind this end not only in acts of Devotion and the direct duties of Religion but in the course of your civil conversation 2. And do not satisfie your self with making God your end in the general course of your life but mind this end actually and expresly in every solemn action of every day If you eat or drink do it not to gratifie your carnal sense or appetite but to preserve your health that by your health and strength you may be better enabled to do God service And so in all your domestick affairs level your Arrow at the same mark aim at this White chiefly and ultimately the Glory of God Thus you will make both your Natural and Civil actions to slide into Religion and become parts of God's service Thus you will serve God in your lying down and in your rising up in your eating drinking sleeping visiting journeying and all other your lawful actions 3. But I do not here bid you to mind this end actually in every ordinary action throughout the whole day or in every bit of Bread that you put in your mouth this cannot be done but yet you may do it in every solemn action of the day you may at every meal when you sit down actually and observedly mind this end though not in every bit you eat Or in a morning when you rise you may have a resolved intention to do all that day in the Name of God and for his Glory and you may by a ready unobserved act of a strong habit order all particulars that day to the same end which you did actually propound to your self at first rising in the morning and still all the day do propound to your self in the general habitual disposition frame and purpose of the heart Thus then though the Glory of God and good of the Soul cannot be distinctly and actually intended in every single action of the day yet a sincere habitual intention of God's Glory well fixed and rivetted within will be sufficient to steer and influence all the particulars of that day into that end As a man that sets forward in a Journey with a full intention to go to London though he do not actually think of London in every step that he takes yet by virtue of the first settled intention every particular step is ordered to that end CHAP. XXI Of spending of Time 1. NEver do any thing meerly to pass the time away Neither make any Visits nor set upon any thing called Recreation barely on that account Time is too precious a Jewel too valuable a Treasure to study how to get rid of it as some do of an old Commodity that lies on their hands that they cannot tell what to do with God never gave us the least pittance or moment of good to trifle away but that we might do some time therein What can you have any time to pass away when many would give all they are worth but to draw out their breath one hour longer As a great Lady that cryed out on her Death-bed All too late a world of wealth for an inch of time 2. Avoid all such occasions whatsoever as are expensive of much time to no good purpose as vain trickings and trimmings tirings and dressings too long needless visits perusal of idle Books or Treatises of vanity and folly vain thoughts fruitless discourse unnecessary sleep useless Recreations and idle Games But it may be askt Are not these things lawful This one Question sends many to Hell May I not do this For we are most of all in danger by the use of
of Christ look by Faith beyond these outward Elements and say Lord thou dost here send me a covered Dish of Royal Cheer from Heaven from thine own Table as to a Beloved Friend or Dear Child Teach me to take off the outward Cover and to see plainly and clearly the rare Delicates that are laid in it Let me so imploy my outward Senses in minding the out-side of the Sacrament so as to raise my Spiritual Senses to see and discern the inside thereof and the Glorious Mysteries couched in it And here exercise further longing desires after those vailed Mysteries and say As the Heart pants after the Water-Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God my Soul is athirst for God yea even for the Living God When you see the Bread broken and the Wine poured out then you see the lively Spectacle of a Dying Saviour Let then Repentance be renewed Faith Love and Resolutions for New Obedience and Holy Desires also Acted and Elevated in the Soul Represent now to your self in this Mystery what our Lord Jesus endured when he hung upon his painful Bed of Sorrows the Cross and say to your self canst thou look upon a broken Saviour without a broken Heart upon a bleeding Christ without a bleeding Soul Upon a pierced Jesus without a Heart pierced thorow with Godly sorrow for thy Sins that pierced him Doth not every Orifice made by the Nayls the Thorns and the Spear in that pretious tormented and pained Body and every drop of Blood that issued thence call aloud to thee for Repentance of those Sins that caused these Torments I do therefore here Vow and Covenant to take a revenge upon my Sins and give them their mortal wound and cause them to Bleed to Death using them as they used my Dear Lord and Saviour O what Streams of matchless Love were these that flowed from a Dying Saviour laying down his Life for me and do not these call for streamings of Love back again from my Breast towards him O that my Soul may be sprinkled with that Blood which issued from that Fountain of infinite Love O that it may be Bathed in that Blessed Bath set open for Sin and for Uncleanness Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there 's none upon Earth that I can desire besides thee my bleeding Saviour When the Minister comes and delivers to you the Bread or Wine look on him as doing it in Christs Name and here stir up Faith and Love to God Think with admiring Love how God in Christ delivers up himself in Covenant to you offering to be your God your Reconciled Father and Redeemer And believe with Joy and Thankfulness that you hear Christ by the Minister saying to your Faith Take my Body and Blood all the Riches of that Covenant which was Sealed with my Blood all the Blessings coucht in that Blessed Charter of the Gospel When you take these at the Ministers hands then let the Hand of Faith stretch forth it self to reach God and stir up your self to take hold on him and put forth intire Resolutions of New Obedience and say Lord by taking this I do Covenant with thee that I take thee with my whole Heart to be my Lord to be ruled and governed as well as saved by thee and I do here seriously devote my self both Body and Soul to the intire Obedience of thee When you are eating the Bread then lift up your Heart by Faith to God and say I believe Lord that thy flesh is meat indeed thou that didst Dye for me art the Bread of Life that shall nourish my Soul to eternal Life My Soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my Mouth shall praise thee with joyful Lips And here by eating this Bread I do Covenant with thee to be thy Servant and Obedient Child for ever And when you are drinking of the Wine or immediately upon it say Lord thy Blood is Drink indeed O that my Soul may tast the refreshings of this Heavenly Wine O stay me with Flagons Comfort me with thy Love which is better than Wine I believe that thy Blood was shed for the Remission of Sins O that I may be washt from all mine in that Holy Laver And that I may hear the soft Voice of thy Spirit whispering to my Soul Daughter be of good Cheer thy Sins be forgiven thee Bless the Lord O my Soul and that is within me bless his Holy Name who forgiveth all thine Iniquities and healeth all thy Diseases When you look upon the Communicants receiving with you exercise Love to the Saints and say where the Carcass is where the Crucified Body of my Saviour is thither will the believing Eagles be gathered together and shall not I be joyned in love with all that Heavenly Flock and Holy Society These Eagles do all feed on Blood the Blood of a Crucified Christ and hath not this a Cementing Virtue to unite Affections These are the Friends of the Bride groom and shall not I make them my Friends Shall not the Beloved of my Saviour be the Beloved Ones of my Soul CHAP. XXXV What is to be done after the Administration is ended VVHEN the solemnity is over go home with a glad heart and a chearful Spirit and say to your self what did Haman go from Esthers Banquet of Wine with a glad Heart glorying in the honour of his being there And shall not I much more rejoyce and glory who have been in the Spouses banqueting House where his Banner over me was love and have been royally entertain'd by the King of Saints with the choicest delicates of Heaven When you are come home retire your self into privacy for a little time and ask your self what your demeanour was at the Lords Table and what happy fruit you have found of your being there What meltings or softnings of Heart What glimpses of Love What cherishing Beams of the Spirit What strength vigor and liveliness of Soul What secret springings and elevations of Spirit What spiritual quicknings and refreshings have you had at that Feast of Fat Things and refined Wines And according as you find it with your Heart upon this short tryal so do you answerably make your addresses unto God If you have found the efficacy of the Ordinance and sweet satisfaction there bless God for it and sing glory to God in the highest and pray earnestly to him that it may abide upon your Soul but if you find no Divine relishes no drops of sweetness but are come away with an earthy and drossy Soul then humble your self before God and labour to find out the Sin that was the obstruction and remove it 3. Be watchful afterwards lest the World or any trifling occasions damp those influences which you found at the Sacrament All persons are most careful of themselves after they come out of a hot Bath lest they shouid take cold When you have been at this Spiritual Bath of the Sacrament be exceeding careful that cold get not info